"I guess that barbecue warning is still stuck in my throat. Sorry!" Galand,My first thought when reading this is that it stems from the famous MacDonald's case. As I recall an award was made to an individual who drove away with a cup wedged between her thighs & spilt coffee there sustaining burns. The case was lost because there was no warning label that the coffee was hot. My understanding is that there was no appeal, so we are stuck with the precedent. It seems crazy to me that it could have been decided that an adult would NOT know that; but there you are.

I will have to verify, but my recollection from flying with/without expo is that high expo in a XMTR and a large centering box could result in some odd effects; i.e., the stick has to be moved more for the XMTR to send a signal indicating a displacement that just exceeds the centering box. Then, as the stick is moved more, there is, in effect, less expo between the XMTR, Guardian, and the control surfaces.

For example, I have a Guardian in a rather agile 3D plane where the plane has far greater capacity than the pilot. Normally, I have between 50 and 65% expo on the very highest 3D rates. With the Guardian in 3D mode, I found reduced travel, soft around neutral stick, then mostly linear beyond the center box (set to 4 or 5, forget which, at this point.) Not really a problem, but something of which a pilot should be cognizant.

As stated by another poster, I have my DR/expo enabled when Guardian is turned OFF. I will try an experiment tomorrow, WX permitting, and report back.

So, if for instance, I select 50% dual rate low, then the Guardian input will only use 50% of the available travel. Right?

No. The expo will affect how the plane responds to your stick inputs. The guardian is further down the pipeline and is not constrained by the expo settings. Think kicking a ball(Tx) vs knee jerk(Guardian) in human terms.

Well, the unit works as advertised in my 70mm F-16 EDF. Completed three flights, dialling down the gain each time by a little - could still come down some more as I feel it's still fighting me in 2D mode more than I'd like.

Put her into some weird attitudes then let go the sticks - perfect recovery every time. Was very windy with a bit of turbulence and rotor action from a line of trees parallel to the runway. Cool to watch the unit punch through, making little corrections with each gust and shear.

Some more fine-tuning as she'll be sweet. I fear it will make me a bit lazy!

So, if for instance, I select 50% dual rate low, then the Guardian input will only use 50% of the available travel. Right?

If Guardian is off, it passes through your expo and rates as if it weren't there, you can set them as you always have.

If Guardian is on, your transmitter settings (expo & rates) influence the commands you are sending to the Guardian. Guardian is sending its own signals to the plane which are not subject to your transmitter expo or travel limit settings. You are not commanding the control surfaces directly, you are telling Guardian what you want the plane to do and it passes on servo signals to achieve that behavior.

For example; With Guardian off and no expo, 25% stick should yield 25% of your travel limit. With expo 25% stick may yield perhaps 15% of your travel limit depending on your expo setting. With Guardian in 3D direct and no expo, 25% stick should yield 25% of your maximum roll rate. Guardian will use whatever surface deflection it needs to achieve that rate. With expo, 25% stick should yield perhaps 15% of your maximum roll rate. Again using whatever deflection needed to achieve that and always subject to your plane's aerodynamic ability to comply. This sounds complicated but in flight it feels like expo works like it always did but how you got there is a bit different.

It might be useful to look at what happens at the extreme. Guardian off, at 100% rate with or without expo, 100% stick yields 100% of your travel limit. With Guardian in 3D direct, 100% stick should yield 100% of your maximum roll rate set in Guardian by software or menu. This defaults to 1 roll/sec. If your plane is capable of 2 rolls/sec, Guardian would be using only partial deflection to achieve 1 roll/sec. If your plane is capable of only 1/2 roll/sec, Guardian would have maxed out its servo travel before you reached full stick trying to make the plane roll as fast as possible. This will work out best if max roll in Guardian settings is close to the max roll of the plane. Or you could intentionally lower the max roll rate to tame a plane that is particularly sensitive on roll. I don't think my brain will respond well to roll rates much beyond 1/sec regardless of what the plane can do. Your mileage may vary.

To go back to your original question, in 3D direct, expo or no, with a 50% travel limit. Full stick will command Guardian to roll the plane at half its max rate setting. It will use whatever deflection it needs to do that, not necessarily 50%. It will, however, roll the plane at half the rate it would use at high rate, 100%. To the pilot the distinction may be moot. At low rate it will roll slower than at high rate, just like always.

Well, the unit works as advertised in my 70mm F-16 EDF. Completed three flights, dialling down the gain each time by a little - could still come down some more as I feel it's still fighting me in 2D mode more than I'd like.

Put her into some weird attitudes then let go the sticks - perfect recovery every time. Was very windy with a bit of turbulence and rotor action from a line of trees parallel to the runway. Cool to watch the unit punch through, making little corrections with each gust and shear.

Some more fine-tuning as she'll be sweet. I fear it will make me a bit lazy!

Cheers,

Dan.

Are you using 2D limited to the centre 5degrees (forget how they word the tick box)??

Well, the unit works as advertised in my 70mm F-16 EDF. Completed three flights, dialling down the gain each time by a little - could still come down some more as I feel it's still fighting me in 2D mode more than I'd like.

I believe that if you will fly in 3D mode and only use 2D as an emergency recovery mode you will enjoy the rseults a lot more.

2D does not feel natital because it is an auto pilot and when auto pilot is turned on it resist input from the pilot. You can tweak the size of the box and the level of contriol the Guardian has but much simplier to just use 3D and enjoy.

If Guardian is off, it passes through your expo and rates as if it weren't there, you can set them as you always have.

Complicated answer to a simple question, sorry.

Thanks for the explanation.
I was surprised by the answer from DavidN, because I could have sworn that with an FY-20A and dual rates flipped to 50%, my control surfaces responded less "enthousiastically" than at full rates when test-wiggling the model.
So net/net, setting dual rates will affect the surface travel, independently wether the input comes from the sticks or from the Guardian. Right?
Or am I still not getting it?